"And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my Gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength as is not known among men."

-D&C 24:12

Monday, October 26, 2015

#LISBONPORTUGALTEMPLEGROUNDBREAKING

Yes.

Yes, you read right.

 The Lisbon Portugal temple has been announced and the ground breaking will be on December 5th of this year! I´m so happy that I will be to be here in this beautiful country when it happens! Temples are such an enormous blessing and words can´t describe how happy it makes me that the ball is finally rolling on its construction! I think it´s funny that i´ve been living in this wonderful country of Portugal for more than a year, and i´ve seen so many miracles here and seen so many lives changed and have just GROWN SO MUCH LOVE for these people, that when they get their own temple, it makes me feel just as happy for them

That was the highlight of my week.

  It´s been really rainy. I´ve had to use the umbrella I bought all the way up when I was in Braga. But that´s good because I still haven´t used it, so at least i´m getting some use out of it!

  I have been having such a blast with Sister Harper. We have really been working hard and we did our first division of the transfer this week in Olhão. It´s so funny that we went back because i´ve been there so many times, I feel like i´ve already served there!

  We marked one of our investigators, Linda to be baptized! She is making a lot of progress. she really has a real intent to know if God exists and is praying and reading the Book of Mormon. When she prays she says that she feels calm. She is incredible!

  So I have had a desire my whole misison to find and baptize a chinese family. I don´t knw why, but I just really want to. So I ordered a bunch of materials in chinese and went to every chinese store in our area. No luck. I was feeling kinda sad about it, until last night when we contacted this young man. Who happened to be chinese... :) We got to talking and it ended up being an amzing contact. He´s 20 just like us and is a college student, but I felt the spirit so strong during that contact that I know that It really was supposed to happen! I know that that desire I have isn´t for no reason, and i´m super excited for the next time we meet with André!

  I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting this week about the Book of Mormon. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON! I think one of the most precious things I have in my life is my portuguese BoM. I have marked up and read it so much and used it so much that it is so precious and full of personal revelation for me. The Book of Mormon has given me a testimony that God really does speak to His children and He wants us to read His scriptures to be able to know what to do in our lives to have more happiness! It´s kinda like a road map to happiness!

Well, I hope everyone has a week full of miracles!

Love,
Sister Mancuso
 
 

Monday, October 12, 2015

Faro, Faro, Faro....AND FARO!

This is gonna be my 4th transfer in Faro! I´ll be staying here and i´ll be serving with Sister Harper- we were together in the MTC!

It´s gonna be an AMAZING TRANSFER!

  I´m super excited to see what this transfer will bring! Well, one thing´s for sure- it´ll bring lots of miracles. It´s what I live for here on the mission! Everyday things and people that God puts in our path to show how much He loves us and how much He loves the people we meet. We met this man this week named João. João works for the Portuguese Red Cross and we met him on the street one morning. He said that the day before, he was feeling kinda depressed and wanted to feel free of whatever it was he was feeling- then he ran into us. Me and Sister McChesney both felt that we have to do everything we can to help him. We had a lesson with him and it was so amazing and spiritual. I felt in that moment the power that we as missionaries hold- we hold the salvation of God´s children in our hands, and that´s something that should be treated with a lot of care and love.

  We went to Lisbon this past week with the Elders to our mission counsel- it was awesome! I always love Lisbon, and this time we went by car, so it was way awesomer! We had to leave at about 6:30 in the morning, but we got there in time to have a super amazing meeting. 

  Hope everyone has an amazing week and sorry that my letters are kinda short- I promise to write a longer one next week!

Com amor,
Sister Mancuso


Monday, October 5, 2015

#GeneralConnferenceWeekend

Oh, yeah.

That´s right. 

Only happens twice a year.

GENERAL CONFERENCE!

This is my 3rd GC on the mission, and it´s so funny. because everytime I watch it, I understand more and more. My first one- didn´t understand ANYTHING. My 2nd one- understood lots. My 3rd- I was surprised with how much I picked up! I understood everything and, of course, I was spiritually fortified. I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE! And even though I didn´t cry this time, I came pretty close a few times. But it´s all good. We had 2 investigators come and they both loved it and felt the spirit really strong.

And we also had a really good experience with one of the Elders´ investigators. His name is Regmi, and he´s from Nepal. He didn´t grow up with a christian background, and he´s been wondering exactly HOW it is we know. Well, on saturday night, he watched conference and later came up to us. He said "I felt it. I felt the fathomless depth." And touched his chest. HE FELT THE SPIRIT! It testified to him. It was a super amazing experience and that is why I love this gospel!

Well, that was the highlight of my week! Have a great week, everyone, and WRITE ME!

Love, Sister Mancuso